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What's the deal with KARN-FM's signal...or lack thereof?

M

MN Maniac

Guest
For the last few weeks, KARN-FM has all but disappeared from radio dials in the Conway area. No reception whatsover in the house. In the car, it's extremely weak. If you're on a hill with a clear shot to the north, it's overridden by Harrison's KHOZ-FM.

Sounds like a transmitter and/or tower issue. My guess is they're running low power, possibly from an auxiliary site (?) Anyone know for sure?
 
Someone down in beautiful downtown Sardis was kind enough to use their tower as target practice in advance of the upcoming deer season. Ammo and coax don't mix very well.... As you can imagine they have had to run at extremely low power until they can get it fixed.
 
I checked KARN-FM after losing KHDX at the crest of that hill on US65 in Northern Conway on the trip to Eureka Springs. A few miles outside of Conway, I was hearing KHOZ-FM quite well and overriding KARN-FM even on hills. I'm no fan of KARN-FM's format but they made a huge mistake of dropping the news from the AM signal. In a perfect world, KAAY would be the Central Arkansas 50KW news/talk station but this is Central Arkansas Radio afterall....
 
It's been nearly a month on low power for them. If they're waiting on spending the money to fix their antenna/feed line damage they need to file an STA with the FCC to reflect why they are running at low power to stay legal. It's supposed to be done within ten days. Most any problem of this nature can be fixed fairly quickly if enough money is thrown at it and with political spending at the levels it is this year they should be in good shape given the political advertising they are airing. I know the political money is a Godsend for the station I do contract engineering for.
 
Considering that KAAY and KARN are both owned by Citadel, does anyone know *why* Citadel never chose to make 'The Mighty 1090' into Little Rock's premier News/Talk station? Seems to me this would have been a no-brainer.

Do they *really* make that much money from running the religious programming? If so, why don't they spend some of it to replace KAAY's rotted ground system and restore the signal?
 
MN Maniac said:
Considering that KAAY and KARN are both owned by Citadel, does anyone know *why* Citadel never chose to make 'The Mighty 1090' into Little Rock's premier News/Talk station? Seems to me this would have been a no-brainer.
Click to expand...

They didn't do it immediately because the sale contract prohibited a format change.

Do they *really* make that much money from running the religious programming? If so, why don't they spend some of it to replace KAAY's rotted ground system and restore the signal?
Click to expand...

They quite possibly do make a bunch from religious programming. Religious broadcasters are major cash cows. As for why they don't replace the ground system, why would they? Religious programming is dependent on who will buy airtime, not who is listening! Why sink a bunch of money into an AM when AM's dying anyway and you have FM's that have more serious problems?
 
KAAY = One of the most profitable stations within Citadel.

Preachers have always loved big signals. They can charge a premium. Very low overhead (no personalities, little sales effort, board op to make sure the programs get on).

You can see where the cash flow would come from.
 
Update: Citadel is obviously in no hurry to get KARN fixed. Going on 3 months and still without a listenable signal in Conway. Thanks, Rich, for having Rush on 980 so we can hear him here.
 
I'll second that thanks to Rich for having Rush on. In the ice storm of 2009 KFFB in Fairfield Bay lost the top 50 feet of tower, antenna and transmitter and was still back on at full power in less time than KARN has been at low power. It's no wonder why people have so little respect for the large corporate broadcasters that have deep enough pockets to get things fixed yet they drag their feet. This also won't help them in the ratings either.
 
MN Maniac said:
Considering that KAAY and KARN are both owned by Citadel, does anyone know *why* Citadel never chose to make 'The Mighty 1090' into Little Rock's premier News/Talk station? Seems to me this would have been a no-brainer.

Do they *really* make that much money from running the religious programming? If so, why don't they spend some of it to replace KAAY's rotted ground system and restore the signal?
Click to expand...


Yes. Period.
 
TVJunkie12 said:
I'll second that thanks to Rich for having Rush on. In the ice storm of 2009 KFFB in Fairfield Bay lost the top 50 feet of tower, antenna and transmitter and was still back on at full power in less time than KARN has been at low power. It's no wonder why people have so little respect for the large corporate broadcasters that have deep enough pockets to get things fixed yet they drag their feet. This also won't help them in the ratings either.
Click to expand...

Conway is now part of the Little Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area. There are a ton of people who live in Conway and work in Little Rock (as evidenced by the frequent traffic gridlock on I-40 during both mornings and afternoons.) So, Citadel is shafting themselves by not getting this issue resolved. Not to mention, making a lot of people unhappy up here! We can listen to Rush on 980/Russellville, but we're still without Dave Elswick.


Another thought: How long can an FM station operate with severely downgraded facilities before the FCC deems it to be "permanent" and allows other co-channel or adjacent channel stations to upgrade, based on KARN-FM's "new" contours?
 
The McRadio concept of the large ownership groups is coming home to roost, and Citadel is no exception. Last year, there was an issue with another one of Citadel's other LR FM stations (KIPR 92.3) that took months to resolve. Although I can pull in KARN-FM near Star City with an outdoor antenna and DX-grade tuner (Sangean HDT-1), the station is weaker and more prone to CCI from WMSI 102.9 Jackson MS when tropo enhancements occur.

In a nearly perfect world of course, KARN's programming would be broadcast on a properly maintained KAAY 50KW signal (along w/ Razorback sports). Sadly,the revenue stream from a low-overhead gospel-huxter is too much for the bean counters to not ignore.

There isn't a real alternative on FM for KARN to relocate to. KURB has the best FM signal of the cluster but its brand is too far established. KIPR's transmitter is located near Pine Bluff (the original pre-1965 KATV tower site) and would not have the punch for clock radios in the Northern part of the LR market. The KOKY, and KPZK/KVLO signals are small sticks.

Hopefully the KARN-FM signal will get fixed soon.
 
They should have had an Special Temporary Authority filed with the FCC within 10 days.

102.9 running at low power makes me miss the AM 920 simulcast-at least during the day. It also has to be frustrating Elswick greatly since he's the PD and the ratings will reflect their lack of signal.
 
Here we are at the end of December and still no usable signal from KARN-FM in the Conway area.

Obviously, this isn't of prime importance to Citadel. If Conway was some podunk town outside of the metro, I could understand. But Conway is over 50,000 population, growing like crazy, and it's part of the Little Rock MSA. That should matter to the powers-that-be.

Could another entity apply for the 102.9/Sheridan frequency since Citadel is not utilizing it at it's licensed parameters? Perhaps the folks who own KLRG-AM 880 would like to have an FM simulcast? Or, could KHOZ/Harrison apply for an upgrade back to full Class C status on this basis? (They were bumped to C0 because of KARN-FM.) Perhaps that would get the ball rolling on this restoration project.
 
I find it quite amusing that the same people that Rush and his ilk defend, the rich, free market capitalists, etc, are the exact same type of folks who are keeping the signal of KARN-FM from getting restored. Probably, some high level exec at the corporate office wouldn't have met his profit forecast, therefore not have gotten his bonus, had the money been spent to restore KARN in a timely manner.

This is the way the blind greed that right wing talk show hosts defend works. Sucks doesn't it? Although, I'm glad this garbage isn't on the air at the moment.
 
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